Chateau Montrose 2003
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Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Dense, deep, purple color with a ruby reflection. Very complex nose offering aromas of ripe red berries, currants, mocha, liquorice, and peony. Complex and very fresh palate loaded with black fruit, chocolate (cocoa with silky tannins). Fabulous wine, full-bodied and very structured. Fresh. Beautiful length with neat, velvety tannins. Splendid aromatic complexity.
Blend: 62% Cabernet-Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A prodigious beast of a wine that's now starting to shed just a touch of its considerable baby fat, the 2003 Château Montrose is based on 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Petit Verdot. It shows the richness of the vintage with its ripe, opulent core of fruit, yet it freshens up noticeably with time in the glass, offering currants, mulberries, smoked tobacco, minty herbs, and licorice. Full-bodied, deep, and powerful on the palate, it still has classic Bordeaux focus and structure.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2003 Montrose was served blind in Bordeaux on two occasions. Picked between 11 to 26 September, it is a blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot. It remains one of the outstanding wines of a very black and white vintage. Without knowledge of the vintage, I was hesitant to suggest 2003, because though there is clearly fruit intensity locked up inside this Saint Estèphe, it is counterbalanced by the estate's trademark masculinity and austerity. So both on the nose and the palate it reaches this happy medium: pure blackberry, graphite and roasted herbs on the nose, perhaps even more elegant than I have observed on previous bottles. The palate is medium-bodied rather than full bodied with sturdy tannins couched in layers of seamless blackberry and cassis fruit, offset by scents of tobacco and graphite. As usual it has immense length and depth, a Montrose that is really just a few chapters into what is sure to be a longer "book" than many other 2003s.
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James Suckling
After the 2009, this is the most exciting Montrose ever made, with intense aromas and flavors of plums, blueberries, spices, tobacco and cedar. It’s full-bodied with extremely refined tannins but a dense, delicious palate.
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Wine Spectator
Dark color. Aromas of blackberry, toasted oak, spice and tobacco. Loads of plum. Medium- to full-bodied, with very integrated and refined tannins. Long. This really builds on the palate. This is better than the 2000 and 1990. Only time will tell if it's better than the 1989.
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Wine Enthusiast
Thought by many tasters to be the wine of the vintage at the time of the 2004 barrel tastings. Has it retained that status? It is certainly a hugely powerful wine, monumental even. It is also finely balanced, with great dark tannins working in partnership with brooding black fruit. The question is whether it is too big, too powerful: only time will tell.
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An extensive renovation program with very strict environmental objectives has been carried out at the estate since it was acquired by Martin and Olivier Bouygues in 2006, reflecting the new owners’ determination to perpetuate the quality of the wine and make Chateau Montrose a model of skilled winemaking and sustainable development.
Under the direction of Hervé Berland since 2012, the estate has 68 employees in the vineyard and winery, all of whom share the same philosophy: respect for the terroir and a constant quest for excellence. That philosophy is manifested in meticulous vineyard practices, very precise parcel selection and use of only the best grapes to make the premium wine, Chateau Montrose.
The other qualities are used to make the second wine, La Dame de Montrose, and the third wine, Le Saint-Estèphe de Montrose.